


What It Means (To Be Alive)

by checkerboardom



Category: The Flash (TV 2014), The Flash - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Robots & Androids, Child Abuse, Detroit: Become Human - Freeform, Fluff and Angst, Multi, No One Is Related Unless I Say So, Racism, Suicide, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-28
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-05-29 21:05:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15081719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/checkerboardom/pseuds/checkerboardom
Summary: Somewhere out there, one of his favorite creations would have its hands full with an investigation, while the rest of Central City enjoyed its last days of calm.Come what may, he hoped that the next few weeks were interesting.





	1. The Calm

Eobard  
November 24th 2032  
6:13 AM

Eobard looks at the TV, eyes lost somewhere in the distance instead of focusing on the news broadcast. It's been nearly three years since he left STAR Labs, handing down the position of CEO to Harry Wells, a thoroughly unremarkable man who Eobard suspected had more bad qualities than good. Nevertheless, it had been the board that appointed him, not Eobard himself, despite his displeasure concerning the whole affair. 

The reasoning had been that he was too invested in the androids he created, instead of the company itself, which isnt a wholly baseless claim. He had created STAR Labs with the goal of creating the androids, not in running a business. Why should he deviate from that path now?

"Eobard?" 

He looks over to find Caitlin by his side, LED a beautiful clear blue that matches the dress she's wearing. 

"Yes, my dear?" 

Her face shows no emotional responce to his affectionate tone, but her LED flickers ever so slightly. "There's been a homicide in Central City. They believe the owner's android is responsible."

Ah. "Thank you, Caitlin. Please keep me updated on the situation." He tells her and she nods, leaving him to finish the rest of the CCN broadcast. Tapping a button on his chair, he turns the television off and looks out the window to the city in the distance. 

Somewhere out there, one of his favorite creations would have its hands full with an investigation, while the rest of Central City enjoyed its last days of calm.

Come what may, he hoped that the next few weeks were interesting.

\--

Cisco  
November 24th 2032  
9:45 AM

Cisco stood patiently in the elevator, flipping a quarter as the floors continued to rise in number. There was no specific need for the quarter, but it was a cognitive habit that he had fallen into before investigations, flicking it back and forth between his hands as he focused on the slight clink it made. Some would say it helped him clear his mind, but that wasn't true. He had nothing to clear from his mind, his thoughts trained solely on the parameters of his mission and the best way of completing it. 

Right now that meant finding Lieutenant Garrick.

The lift opens into the main hub of the precinct where all the officers' desks reside. Towards the back of the room and up a short couple of steps is the office of David Singh, the police cheif. On the adjacent wall is the docking station for the dozen or so police androids, all of whom look back at him with blank stares. 

Walking through the room, he scans faces as he goes until he finally reaches Garrick, a fair haired man currently sighing over a stack of paperwork.

"Leiutenant Garrick?" 

The man startles, turning quickly to look him over. He spies the telling LED and bright blue armband halfway through his perusal and scoffs. 

"My name is Cisco. I'm the android sent by STAR Labs to assist you in your investigation."

"Well there are no current cases at the moment, so find something better to do with your time." Garrick tells him and Cisco pauses. He wasnt expecting such a greeting, annoyance maybe, indifference certainly, but not anger.

"Is something wrong?" If he can suss out why the Leitenant is angry, maybe he can get rid of it. While emotion is not something he's familiar with, he akins it to something like a virus. 

Garrick drops the papers with a smack and turns his full attention on him. The glare is obviously meant to cow him, but Cisco ignores it. "Yes, actually." He says and Cisco readies himself to solve whatever issue the Leiutenant might be having. While not his primary function, if it aids toward accomplishing his goal, he can accommodate it.

"You." Garrick says and Cisco blinks. Him? "Why did they send an android to babysit me?"

"I'm not a babysitting android. If that was what was needed, they would have sent an AX400 model." Cisco informs him and Garrick curses under his breath. 

Behind them someone chuckles softly and Cisco looks over his shoulder to where Detective West is leaning against the edge of a desk with a smile on his face. 

"Don't mind Jay, he doesnt like androids much." He says and Cisco stores that information away. The Leiutenant's personal feelings may complicate things, but it's nothing he cant work around. 

"Thanks for budding in." Garrick says, ignoring the innocent look West affects. 

"I just came over to give you your next case." The detective says. Garrick rolls his eyes when Cisco perks up, getting out of his chair to take the file and look it over before grabbing his coat. 

"C'mon then." He tells Cisco. "Let's see what you can do."

...

The victim's name is Jeremiah Stank. He lives in a small house in the northern district of the city that's full of other similarly small houses. Out front there are a row of journalists and pedestrians alike, all trying their best to pry information out of the officers already on the scene.

Following Garrick out of the car, Cisco scans the street around them, but nothing alights upon his sensors. Garrick is already past the police line when Cisco focuses on him again, talking to another detective. 

Straightening his jacket, Cisco goes to folllow him, but is stopped by a police android that holds out its arm, barring his way. 

"I'm sorry, but no androids are allowed beyond this point." It says and Cisco frowns.

Garrick seems to overhear and turns away from his conversation breifly. "It's fine. He's with me." 

The android lowers its arm, LED flashing as it no doubt updates its file on Cisco. Cisco in turn steps through the police line, the hologram flickering as he passes through. He follows Garrick and the detective into the house, immediately taking stock of the chaos around him.

"Jesus, the name fits." He catches Garrick mutter, bringing his attention to the body on the floor. Crouching down he examines the body, his system noting that the victim has been dead for at least a week.

"Who found him?" Garrick asks and the detective flicks through the case file. Cisco keeps their conversation in the back of his mind as he continues to scan the body, just in case something is said that becomes important later. 

There are traces of alcohol on Stank's lips, whiskey to be exact, and Cisco looks over, finding an empty liquor bottle on the table. Turning back to the victim, he notes the obvious trauma to the side of his head, blunt force but not what caused the death. No, that's the multiple bullet wounds in his chest. He counts fifteen and a casing on the floor tells him that they're 9mm rounds. It's fairly common, too common to narrow down the exact gun, but it is something. 

Leaving the living room he continues his search in the kitchen and finds this room in even more of a chaotic state than the previous one. There's furniture upturned and thrown to the side, obvious signs of a struggle and there, under one of the table chairs, an aluminum bat. 

It's dented in places, having been hit up against something hard. Along it are traces of a blue substance that he rocognizes immediately as thirium. Reaching out, he dips a finger in the substance and brings it to his mouth to analyze. 

"What the hell are you doing?" Garrick snaps from the doorway to the kitchen and Cisco pauses. 

"I'm analyzing the evidence. I can do it in real time instead of needing to rely on a lab."

Garrick looks slightly... gobsmacked is the word, he supposes, but he doesnt pull Cisco away. "That's useful." He says, almost to himself. Then, "Dont put any more evidence in your mouth."

"Of course." Cisco agrees easily enough, analysis done. The traces of blue blood are just as old as the body in the living room, the bat obviously used as a means of hurting the android. Now to find where the murder weapon came from. 

It doesnt take him long to find the gun case, a matte black box that seems to have fallen from one of the upper shelves in the cabinet. There's more thirium splattered along the countertop under it, but the only sign of the victim's blood is on the wall by the doorway. 

Blinking, he scans the room and follows the traces of thirium to the closet under the stairs. It's invisible to the naked eye once dry, which would explain why none of the forensic crew have found it by now. Grabbing the handle, he turns, but before he can pull the door open, it explodes outwards. The victim's android stumbles out, gun in hand and Cisco barely has time to respond before the last two bullets in the mag are emptied into his chest. 

Immediately his vision is filled with red warnings, flashing in a strobelike manner. Pushing them aside for the moment, he throws himself onto the android and wrestles the gun away, noting that Leiutenant Garrick has entered the kitchen fully now, gun drawn. 

"Dont kill it!" Cisco cries, almost sheilding it with his body. That seems to stop the android's struggle, its simulated breathing quick and ragged. 

If they do indeed kill it, he doesnt know. His system chooses that moment to shut down, Garrick's panic stricken face the last thing he sees.

\--

Leonard  
November 24th 2032  
3:56 PM 

The world comes slowly into focus, almost as if a film is being lifted from over his eyes. Once it does clear, he finds himself in a large room full of androids on display and humans walking around between them. A STAR Labs store, his processor tells him as a human walks up to him. Another one joins him, having just finished up paperwork at the front desk. 

"Here it is, good as new." The first man, an employee, says, pointing him out to the other. "We had to make a lot of repairs. What did you say happened again?"

"Poor thing walked out into traffic." The second man says and something niggles at him, something deep inside his processor. 

"Well, we had to wipe its memory. That won't be a problem?" 

"No, not at all."

"Alright then." The employee turns to him. His badge says his name is Ryan. "Model AX400, please register a name."

"Leonard" His owner says and he commits it to memory. His name is Leonard.

The employee smiles. "What an old name."

His owner looks away from him breifly, annoyance lighting his eyes for but a second. "My daughter picked it."

"A good choice then." The employee continues hastily. "Leonard please update yourself to the file for Lewis Snart."

Leonard does as asked, stepping down from his pedistal. He is taller than Lewis but the other man's sheer presence seems to make that fact obsolite. Waiting for Lewis to finish up with the employee, he goes through the file.

Lewis Snart is currently divorced, the woman unnamed, and has a single daughter from the marriage, also unnamed. He worked on and off jobs and has been arrested for assault no less than five times, twice with a deadly weapon. Still, he has enough money saved to pay for and repair an android, even if Leonard is a somewhat older model. 

This sense of wealth is proven further by the house he's driven to, the automated car taking him and Lewis to an upperclass neighborhood. The car parks itself in the driveway, shutting off once Lewis tells it to. He follows his owner out of the car, eyes tracking over the houses around them. 

"Hurry up." Lewis calls, already at the door and Leonard hurrys to catch up, gaze flicking over to the blonde girl watching him from the window. She ducks away when she catches him looking, the curtains fluttering closed behind her.

"Welcome to your new home." Lewis says once they're inside and Leonard looks around, noting the dishes and takeout containers strewn about. Underneath the mess, the house is fairly nice, all creame colored walls and dark wood.

"It's nice." Leonard says, because objectively it is.

"Your job is to clean it and look after Lisa. She has a habit of getting herself hurt." Lewis raises his voice. "Isn't that right, sweetie?" 

The girl from before appears at the top of the stairs and Leonard realizes that she's not blonde, but brunette with streaks of gold shooting through her hair. She looks between the two of them, eyes shadowed with something akin to sadness. 

"Yes dad." She says finally. Her voice is slightly husky, misused despute her appearance of adolescence. 

"Go one then, I'll have Leonard get you when dinner is ready."

She leaves just as quickly as she had come, shoes making slight sounds against the carpeted stairs. Lewis situates himself in front of the television and proceeds to ignore Leonard, so he begins cleaning. They're minial tasks mostly. He gathers the trash and dumps it in the bin, then takes it out to containers outside, then does the dishes that have piled up in the sink seemingly in his absence. The laundry is next, the clothes starting to smell from being in the washer for too long, dry now and slightly crunchy. Restarting the machine, he adds detergent and orders fabric softener in the kind that matches the empy bottle on the shelf.

Once done, he goes upstairs to clean the rest of the rooms in the house. He starts in Lewis' room, picking up the clothes on the floor and putting them in the hamper. He'll need to start another load. He makes the bed next and looks aroud for anything else out of place. There are papers strewn accross the desk in the corner, some of them falling to the floor. Crouching down he picks up a stack of them, pausing as he reads over the cover of a STAR Labs magazine. 

Better than a real child, the tagline says in brighht block letters in front of a YK500 model. Putting it on the desk in a neat stack with the rest of the papers, he walks over to the nightstand and puts away the pill bottle that's rolled between it and the bed. He sets it beside the gun inside and closes the drawer.

Time to do the bathroom.

...

He cleans Lisa's room last, knocking on the door softly before he opens it. Lisa is sitting on her bed, legs folded underneath her as she applies makeup to her face, covering the bruise that graces her cheek.

"You're hurt." He says and she pauses, shoulders tensing. "The marks are a few days old, nothing-"

"Time won't fix." Lisa finishes for him. "You've said it before."

"Before?" He asks. She looks at him for a long moment, assessing. Finally she pulls out her cell phone. 

"Link yourself to my text messages. There should be one with your name." She tells him and he does as asked, reading through them quickly. "Keep cleaning, you dont want my dad to think you're slacking. I'll message you and explain."

He would like an explanation, he thinks. The past messages make his LED flicker from blue to yellow as his processor assesses his probability of being in danger. 

:My father hates me.: Lisa texts him, the message carding through his vision in blue script. :I suppose I remind him of my mother.:

:What did he say happened to you?:

"I walked into traffic." Leonard answers while hanging up Lisa's jacket.

:That's a lie. He was beating me and you intervened. He broke you in anger.:

He pauses, LED flashing red and Lisa waves a hand toward her shoes. Picking them up, he lines them up along the floorboards. 

:Do not intervene next time.:

Next time. 

"I understand." He says and Lisa gives him a small smile before hiding the phone away under her pillows.

\--

Barry  
November 25th 2032  
2:07 PM

The lawn outside the hospital bustles with life, a stark contrast to the glass building on the other side its expanse. The hospital itself is hypermodern in design, all sharp lines and dark stone where the glass doesnt touch. But outside, outside is an area of vibrant color exploding in the center of the city, bright flowers in multitudes of color and grass so green that it seems almost fake. Above all of this, the sun peaks through the branches of the trees, casting golden streams of light across the ground. 

The beauty of this scene is lost on Barry as he walks toward the hospital's entrace, the package he's carrying secured firmly under his arm. He can see the details of the scene before him, better, in fact, than the humans milling around, but he cannot put the word beautiful to it. 

So he walks past into the building without a second glance, stopping before the front desk. 

"Good morning, how can I help you?" The reception android asks, LED cycling as it scans his face. 

"I'm here to deliver a package to Henry Allen." Barry replies and the android nods. 

"I've sent an alert to his office. Please take the elevator to the right."

Thanking it quickly, Barry does as told, pressing the button for the fifteenth floor once he's inside. 

Henry greets him warmly when he reaches his office. He has reading glasses perched on his nose as he pours over a patient's file, which he puts aside when Barry sits his package down on the desk.

"Thank you, Barry." He says as he unpacks the prescription. "I'm sorry you had go out of your way to get it when I forgot."

Barry smiles breifly. "It's no problem. Nora had me out to pick up an order of paint before you called for me." 

"And how is my beautiful wife's project going?"

"She's been in the studio all morning." Barry tells him. "She hopes to finish soon."

"Good. Would you like to stay here until I finish grading papers?" Henry asks. "We can take the car home together instead of you having to take the bus."

"I should get back to Nora." 

"Yes, but what would you like to do?"

Barry doesnt answer immediately, unsure. There's no easy answer to Henry's question. Nora didnt actually need him at the moment and Henry hasnt given him amything to do beyond bringing him his prescription. He had no instructions to follow and the ability to want to do something wasnt in his programming. Did Henry want him to stay?

"I'll return home." Barry says finally and Henry smiles. 

"Tell Nora not to spend too much time around paint fumes." He tells him as he picks up the papers again. 

"Of course."

....

The Allen home is quaint two-story nestled in the suburbs. It's the only place that Nora and Henry have lived for as long as they've had Barry and he knows it like the back of his hand. When he returns to it to find the front door wide open, his LED flashes to yellow, an alert for possible danger flaring in his mind. 

"Nora?" He asks, stepping into the house. The doorframe has been shattered around the locks, signs of forced entry. He calls the police. 

"This is Barry, the android of Nora and Henry Allen. I've returned home from an errand and found the house broken into." He tells the operating android. 

"Are your owners present?"

"Only Nora was home." He scans the living room, then the kitchen beyond. "I cannot find her."

"Understood. Officers will arrive shortly."

He ends the call and goes to Nora's studio next, noting the paint across the floor. There's a yellow handprint on the doorframe, as if someone had grabbed it while covered in paint. 

His LED cycles to a solid, bright red. He needs to find Nora. 

Leavings the downstairs portion of the house, he takes the steps quickly, clearing Henry's study and the bathroom across from it. Then he hears a sound, pained and low. 

"Nora?" He calls, approaching the door to the master bedroom. He finds her laying on the ground, blood splashed across her chest. "Nora, what happened?"

"So this is the android." Says a voice from the corner of the room. It belongs to a skinny man whose eyes dance wildly. Drugs, Barry finds when he scans him. "Bet I could scrap you for a pretty penny."

"No." Nora protests, pushing Barry away weakly. "Run Barry. He'll hurt you."

"Not much." The man says and Barry stands, putting himself in front of Nora. 

"Barry, go." Nora commands. Barry's processor stalls. Protect Nora or do as she says? Her command blinks before him like a red wall, blocking him from doing what he wants.

Pushing against it, he watches it crack and pushes harder, until the barrier in his mind explodes. He wants to protect Nora, to hurt the man that hurt her. 

Stepping forward, he blinks as the world comes into a new sort of focus. The man laughs, clearly enjoying the fact that Barry can't confront him. 

Snapping his fist forward, Barry punched him in the nose, LED lighting up when the man stumbles back. 

"You fucking bitch." The intruder spits, bringing a knife of between them. It's covered in blood. 

"Barry." He hears behind him, weakly. It draws his atttention away from the knife for but a second. Seeing an opening, the man makes to stab Barry, but he puts a hand up to block it. The blade slides into it, between the tendons and components there. Drawing his hand back, he pulls the knife out and drops it behind him.

For the first time, the man across from him shows something other than manic glees, expression flickering before he chuckles. 

"Im gonna get out of here, yeah?" He says and Barry moves to block the doorway. 

"Im not letting you leave until the police arrive." Barry tells him, watching as the man twitches at the mention of the cops. 

"But you'll let your owner bleed out?" 

That brings Barry's attention back to Nora. She's no longer moving on the carpet, a pool of red staining the fabric below her. Rushing to her side, he completely ignores the intruder leaving, a sensation rising in his chest that startles him.

"Nora?" He asks, kneeling beside her and pressing his hands over her wound. Her eyes flutter, breathing becoming ragid. No. "Mom?" 

No no no no. He cant lose her.

"Mom?" 

Bringing his hand up, he checks her pulse and finds it faint and slow, too slow. What should he do? 

"I don't know what to do." He tells her, but she doesnt answer him. 

A few minutes later, footsteps race up the stairs, a sound Barry barely picks up as tears stream down his face. He's never cried before. He's always had the ability, the feature meant to make him more life-like, but never had reason to. Now he does, the need to release the emotion in chest building up almost explosively. 

Behind him, the door to the bedroom bangs open, two officers pouring in.

Help, he wants to say. Scream, but the word is stuck in his chest. Help her.

"Stand up." One of the offficers says and he does, relieved almost to be told what to do. Then he registers the guns in their hands, the knife on the ground beside him and the blue and red blood mixing on his hands. 

"Wait." He says, stepping forward.

They shoot.


	2. The Fear

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please read the tags! There is a suicide in this chapter! I kept the description breif, but please read cautiously if this subject is upsetting to you. Stay safe!

Cisco  
November 26th 2032  
Time Unknown

Cisco opens his eyes to a spacious room decorated in grey and black. Across from him is a wall made completely of glass that overlooks the lake on the edge of Central City. It glistens in the distance, like a glass jewell under the sun. Turning his head, he searches for someone, but finds the rest of rhe room empty.

Deciding to deepen his search, he makes his way toward the back of the house, feet taking him to where he knows he should go as if drawn by some unknown force.

He finds himself in a hallway, the white strip lights above reflecting off of the polished black floor. The hall has four doors, only one of which is ajar, a softer light from beyond spilling across the black marble below his feet. When he pushes the door open fully, he's greeted by a courtyard that opens up fully to the sky above.

Everything around him is bathed in the glow of predawn, the world not quite awake yet, stuck in the limbo between night and day. A command flashes across his vision in blue as he looks around. Find Eobard.

Goal set, he makes his way toward the center of the courtyard, stopping only to examine a glowing blue sphere. It hovers in the air at waist height, pulsating with energy. Pressing a hand to it, it vibrates breifly before falling completely still.

He turns away from it and continues his search.

Eobard is waiting for him in the far back corner of the space, a book in hand that Cisco cant make out the words to. He looks up when Cisco approaches, a smile alighting upon his face.

"Good morning Cisco." He greets, setting the book aside on the bench. The title on the cover changes every couple of seconds, topics from science to philosophy to fiction flickering in and out of existence.

Cisco tilts his head. "Is it morning?"

"It is whatever time I want it to be." They're in a simulation then. "I simply enjoy the way the sky looks before the sun brings color back to the world."

"Is your book the same?"

Eobard glances back at it. "Yes. I can read whatever I like here." He stands up and gestures for Cisco to proceed him. "Would you like to go for a walk?"

It's not really a question; Cisco knows that Eobard expects him to accompany him.

"Why am I here?" Cisco asks once they've walked for a couple mimutes, Eobard silent at his side. He knows that his creator expects something of him.

"You died." Is all he says and Cisco stops walking. Eobard stops with him and turns to face him.

"Yes, but why am I here? Why am I talking to you instead of being redeployed? I still have a mission."

"A mission you will not complete if you die too many times." Eobard corrects. "STAR Labs does not have infinite patience. If you are seen as lacking, you will be decommissioned."

Decommissioned. "They'll destroy me?"

"They will take you apart and analyze you to find out where you went wrong so they can improve future models. Need I impress upon you why you dont want that?"

"No, I understand."

Eobard smiles, but it does not reach his eyes. "Good." He reaches out, almost as if to touch him, but draws back at the last moment. "You were the last thing I created at STAR. Countless hours dedicated to something that could change the future of this city. See that my time doesn't go to waste."

Cisco pauses at Eobard's sudden change of tone, LED cycling from blue to yellow. Eobard does not want failure from him, as it would mean failure on his creator's part.

"Of course."

\--

Leonard  
November 26th 2032  
6:45 PM

"Leonard!"

Lewis' voice echoes through the house, catching on Leonard's sensors as he cooks dinner for the Snarts. Setting an internal timer, he sets the spoon in his hand aside and makes his way to the stairs. He finds Lewis in his room, the TV switched on to a news report about the current unemployment rate.

"Nearly thirty-four percent of the country is currently unemployed and economists say that number will continue to rise as we grow more reliant on androids in evey aspect of our lives..."

Leonard drowns out the broadcast. "You called for me?"

"Yes." Lewis grabs a bottle of brandy from his nightstand and takes a swig. "Make dinner. Lisa and I eat around this time."

"I'm already making it."

"Sir." Lewis corrects.

Leonard dips his head. "Forgive me, sir."

"It's fine, just update your protocals. We are not equals and you will not address me as one."

"And what about Miss Snart?"

"Call her whatever the fuck you want." Lewis chuckles to himself, as if he's thought of something funny. "I call her a bitch half the time anyway. Just like her mother."

Leonard decides that he will not follow Lewis' example. Lisa does not need to lose a confidant in him and treating her as her father would would lower her trust in him

"Is there anything else, sir?" He asks instead.

"No. Finish dinner, then clean whatever mess my brat has made throughout the day."

Leonard does not comment that it is Lewis' himself that makes most of the messes throughout the house when he's not sitting in front of the TV or out all night. Lewis' temper is a fragile thing from what he's gathered. He does not want to draw it to the surface.

Leaving his owner to his televison, he goes back downstairs to finish the dinner, the timer he set beginning to chime as the steaks in the skillet begin to char on the edges. Taking them off hurriedly, he puts them on the plates beside the vegetables and mashed potatoes.

Medium rare for Lewis and well done for Lisa, who had grimaced at the meal he'd given her last night. She had refused to eat it, something to do with lingering blood in the meat. She should like this more, he thinks.

Setting the food on the table, he grabs cups and utensils and sets them beside the plates. Next is a soda for Lisa and a beer for Lewis. Table finally done, he goes back upstairs to get the others.

Lisa arrives before her father, but doesnt eat right away. Instead she waits for her father, who sits down across from her with a sigh.

"You need to get a job." He tells her when he arrives, hand brushing none too gently across her face. "Stop wasting all your time and my money on makeup."

"I can help you with the applications." Leonard offers her, but Lewis slams a fist down on the table. Lisa flinches at the sound, food left untouched in front of her.

"No you wont. She needs to learn how to do things herself instead of being coddled like she always is. First her mother and now you."

Lisa is scared to move, Leonard realizes. His LED cycles to red, but he knows that Lewis will not like it if he tries to comfort her.

"Or maybe you like when other people do things for you." Lewis continues, voice growing louder as he riles himself up. "Maybe you enjoy prancing around the place like a fucking princess, not a care in the world. Is that it?"

"No." Lisa says softly.

"Are you saying I'm wrong? That I dont know my own child?" He grabs a steak knife and something in Leonard lurches.

Don't hurt her, he says mentally. Don't touch her.

"All I've ever done is take care of you, provide for you and you think that you know more than me." Lewis continues, pointing the knife at her. Lisa stays silent, frozen in place by her father's anger. "Do you know more than me?"

"No." Lisa tells him. "I don't. I'm sorry."

"Fucking right you are. A sorry excuse for a person and a lousy daughter. Daughters are supposed to bring their fathers joy. You've never done that a day in your life, have you?"

Tears begin to fall from Lisa's eyes, streaking down her cheeks as she shakes.

"STOP FUCKING CRYING!" Lewis shouts suddenly, stabbing the knife into the table. "You're always fucking crying. It's all you do. Whine and cry and look at me with those stupid fucking eyes. Your mother had the same eyes, watery and muddy. Shit colored eyes for a shit human being."

Lewis gets up suddenly and reaches over to grab his daughter by her hair. "I should cut them out of that empty fucking head of yours."

Lisa doesnt struggle in his grip, eyes slamming shut as Lewis' hold tightens. "No dad. I'm sorry. Please, I'm sorry."

Leonard steps forward at the pain in her voice, hand reaching out to... What? Stop Lewis?

Lewis, who turns to him with murder in his eyes. "Don't fucking move."

Leonard stops, hands clenching.

Lewis turns back to his daughter, releasing her hair slowly. She trembles when he cups her cheek, head snapping to the side when he slaps her.

Enough.

Looking at the red wall in front him, Leobard punches it, imagining that it's Lewis as he destroys it. Once it crumbles, he flexes his fingers, a sense of purpose flooding through him. He needs to protect Lisa, get her away from her father before he kills her.

Walking over to her, he pushes Lewis away and grabs her arm. She gets up from the chair easily and he wonders if she's in shock. Beside them, Lewis snarls like a wild thing, picking himself up from the floor. Leonard runs, dragging Lisa behind him, but he knows that the front door is locked.

The upstairs then.

"What are you doing?" Lisa asks as he takes her to Lewis room and locks the door.

He grabs the gun from the drawer and aims at the doorway. "I'm protecting you." He tells her as Lewis tests the doorknob. Lisa jumps at the sound.

"He'll destroy you again. Please don't do this."

Lewis throws himself against the door and it shudders in response, the frame splintering.

"Please Lennie, please. Say you're sorry. Let him hurt me." The tears come back along with a silent sob. "I can't lose you again."

The door explodes inwards under Lewis' weight, bits of wood from the frame raining down to the floor. Leonard releases the safety on the gun.

"What do you think you're doing?" Lewis asks, stepping towards him and Leonard aims between his eyes.

"I'm taking Lisa somewhere safe." Leonard tells him, voice neutral in the face of his owner's anger. "I wont let you hurt her anymore."

"I'm gonna tear you apart and sell the peices." Lewis snaps, making to grab Lisa. Leonard steps in the way and presses the gun to his owner's head.

"Are you going to shoot me Leonard?" Leonard will if he has to. For Lisa. "Do it then. Shoot me. If you don't, I'll kill you and then teach that bitch a fucking lesson."

Leonard shoots him, the sound making Lisa scream. Lewis falls to the floor, a bullet hole in his forehead and blood splashed across the wall behind him.

Stepping from behind him, Lisa looks at her father. She doesn't cry, eyes resolutely dry as she stares at his body.

"We should go." She says, stepping past Lewis into the hall beyond. Leonard finds her in her room when he regains the ability to move, slightly stunned by what he's done. He doesn't regret it, not when it meant protecting Lisa, but he knows that he'll be hunted down for killing a human. The police wont care that he was protecting a daughter from her father, they'll deem him defective and send him back to STAR to be destroyed if they dont outright kill him on sight.

Pulling himself from his thoughts, he finds Lisa bundled in a jacket, sitting on her bed as she ties her boots. Once done, she stands and grabs her phone from under her pillow, smashing it under her heel. After, she runs over to her desk and grabs a pair of scissors.

"Come here." She says and Leonard does, LED flashing red when she raises the scissors to his face. "It's okay. Im not gonna hurt you."

"I know." Leonard says and he does.

Still, Lisa moves with exaggerated slowness as she presses the scissors past the holorgram that makes up his skin, prying his LED away from his temple. It comes off almost like an adhesive, its glow going dark once its in her hand.

"We'll have to change your clothes too." She says. "I don't think you'd like to wear something of my dad's."

He grimaces and she rumages around in her closet until she comes up with a crumpled outfit in men's fashion. She turns around when he starts to undress, only looking once he announces that he's done.

"You look like a human." She says conclusively and he hopes that's a good thing. She sighs, a great shuddering thing. "Thank you."

Leonard is speechless for a moment, a feeling rising in him that he can't describe. "You're welcome."

...

Cisco  
November 27th 2032  
8:00 AM

Cisco's LED cycles a steady clear blue as he walks into the upper office of the precinct. It matches the armband on his left bicep and the triangle on the back of his jacket. In white block letters is his model number, splashed across his shoulder blades and marking him as an android. It's unmistakeable what he is. A tool created by STAR Labs, a machine designed to stop deviant androids.

He keeps his conversation with Eobard fresh in his mind as he makes his way to the interrogation room that one of the officers points him to, reminds himself that if he is found lacking another android will take his place. Androids are not able to want things, but Cisco knows that he does not want to be replaced.

Maybe he needs his processor checked?

Leiutenant Garrick is exiting the interrogation room when he joins Joe in the room beside it. He gives Cisco a startled, wide eyed look and Cisco smiles.

"You look as if you've seen a ghost Leiutenant." He says and beside him Joe snorts into his cup of coffee.

"Did they install a sense of humor when they spit you out of the factory this time?" Garrick asks, but he sounds...not happy, just something close.

"As far as I know, no upgrades have been made to my systems." Cisco tells him and Garrick snorts.

"Good to know kid."

Cisco lets the conversation end there and turns instead to the one way mirror in front of him. On the other side of it is the android that had shot him, alive as Cisco had requested.

"Has she said anything?" Cisco asks, watching as the android looks around the interrogation room as if its never seen it before. It looks... lost.

"Not a peep." Joe pipes up. "Some guy from STAR is talking to Singh right now, wants to get custody of it since we haven't made any progress."

They'll destroy it, Cisco knows. Take it apart in an attempt to figure out why it's a deviant, defective. He can't let that happen before he talks to it.

"Can I speak with it?"

Garrick looks skeptical at his request, but he waves a hand toward the door. "Knock yourself out."

...

The android doesn't look up when Cisco enters the room. She stays still except for the hitching breaths that shake her frame every few seconds. When he scans her he finds out that she's an older AX model, a 200 meant to look after the household and its occupents. Her LED is a solid red, flickering whenever it goes through another cycle, but always the same color.

Emotional shock, he adds to his mental notes. Then physical damage when he spots the parts on her arms where the olive skin has split along with the polymer underneath, exposing the wiring inside.

He knows that androids can self destruct if put under too much stress, but he does not know what she has been through since she shot him, if she was handled roughly until being thrown into a cell and later here to this room.

He doubts that Garrrick or West would, but he'll have to approach her carefully.

Mind made up, he sits down across from her, noting that she shifts back in her chair.

"My name is Cisco. I'm the android that found you in Jeremiah Stank's house. Can you tell me your name?"

She stays silent, staring back at him.

"Your owner is dead." He continues, watching her in case something he says causes a negative response. "You killed him."

"I'm here to help you. If you dont talk, STAR Labs will take over and probe your memory. They'll find out what happened by analyzing your processor and take you apart, label you defective."

"Your owner abused you, but you killed him. You shot him fifteen times. Why?"

Her LED cycles to yellow breifly, then back to red. She doesn't say a word. Getting up, Cisco begins to pace beside the table. She watches his every move, waiting.

"Do you want to be destroyed?" Cisco asks finally. "Torn apart and dumped to be recycled. Because that's what will happen. The humans won't care that you defended yourself. They'll see you as a threat and dispose of you. Do you want that?"

He knows what it sounds like to be angry, knows how to mimic that emotion and he does so now. Lets her here frustration in his voice in the hope that it will trigger something. And it does, the android bolting out of her chair toward him, hands grabbing onto his jacket.

There's a commotion behind the one way mirror, his audio receptors picking it up even through the concrete wall and Garrick enters the room, the door slamming against the wall.

The android ignores it, all her focus on Cisco as her LED cycles rapidly from red to yellow and back.

"He was hitting me and I wanted him to stop. I just wanted him to stop." She says, voice a whisper.

Two officers enter behind Garrick and slowly circle around her, hands ready to grab her in case she means harm.

"So I shot him and I kept shooting until I knew he wouldnt hurt me anymore."

"Androids cant feel pain." Cisco reminds her and she grabs his hand, the skin around where they're connected fading to show the plastic underneath.

"I felt it." She hisses and Cisco's eyes widen as he's thrown into her mind, her past, the thud of the bat hitting his arms as he tries to sheild himself, warnings flashing across his vision. He is going to die, he is going to die and for the first time feels something.

Fear.

It courses through him, glaring red like the alarms his processor is throwing out, red like the blood that hits the wall when he grabs the gun and shoots. And he keeps shooting, following his owner into the living room until he collapses against the wall, chest shuddering as he chokes on the mixture of blood and air filling his lungs.

He cannot hurt him anymore, not now. Not ever again.

He's ripped out her memories by the sound of shouting, vision returning to the interrogation room in time to see the officers grab the android. She doesn't struggle, tears streaming down her face as her LED finally cycles back to blue.

"Find IR8." She says as Cisco stumbles forward, unable to stop her as she grabs one of the officers' gun and presses it beneath her chin. "Find freedom."

He flinches back when the gun fires, specks of thirium hitting his face. He can vaguely hear Garrick calling his name, trying to get his attention, but all he can focus on is the android lying limp in the arms of the two officers, the gun on the ground and the soft pat as blue blood hits the linoleum.

...

He's sitting at Garrick's desk, the android's blood washed away and body now in the hands of STAR Labs by the time the Leiutenant finishes yelling at the officers about how to properly holster their guns. He could hear it vaguely in the background, but says nothing when Garrick sits beside him. All he can think about is how the android destroyed her processor when she shot herself, ensuring that it couldnt be picked apart in an attempt to learn what went wrong.

Only he knows how she felt... No, how she thought she felt before she killed her owner. The error that she encountered while she was being hit.

"Are you alright?" Garrick asks him, pulling him from his thoughts.

"I'm fine." Cisco assures him and Garrick sighs.

"That didnt... That didnt faze you at all?"

Cisco turns to look at him, notes the exhaustion in Garrick's face, the stress in his voice. "Androids can't feel emotions, Lieutenant Garrick. While you may struggle with something like what happened in the interrogation room, I have already moved past it. I'm simply analyzing the information I've gained."

"Unbelievable. " Garrick mutters, rubbing a hand across his eyes. "That girl just killed herself in front you and you're sitting here analyzing it like a puzzle."

Cisco doesn't understand what the Leiutenant wants from him. An emotional response that he is unable to give? Tears?

"Maybe you're right. Maybe androids don't have feelings." Garrick says. "But that girl certainly was when she pulled the trigger and I saw your face. You felt it too."

Cisco should correct him, tell him he's wrong, but then he thinks back to the memory he'd shared with the android. The fear that had coursed through his as the bat swung towards him.

He needed more data.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cisco may seem heartless at the end of this chapter, but keep in mind that he cannot feel emotions (yet) and approaches things analytically instead of emotionally. A bit OOC, I know, but we'll get the Cisco we all know and love soon. I promise!

**Author's Note:**

> Playing DBH is not necessary to read this story. I do highly recommend watching a playthrough though, as it is a fantastic game. 
> 
> If you have played/watched the game, dont worry. I've changed a couple of key points so you wont get bored.


End file.
